Weekend in New York: a family history pilgrimage

Alexander Hamilton Custom House, site of the conference 

Last weekend I had a great time in New York City.  It was really the first time I have ever been on my own, for multiple days, in a large metropolis.  No kids, I kept looking for them but they really weren’t there.  Nerve wracking at first but an absolute delight once I got the first minor anxiety attack out of the way.

I was there for a conference but secretly I had a plan.  A family heritage plan.  I unfortunately was not able to make it to the NYC Archives (drat you for not being open on the weekend) but I did make a family history pilgrimage of sorts to a very small green space in the middle of the concrete jungle.

Soldier's Monument, Trinity Church

In a previous post I talked briefly about Anneke Jans and her 62 acres on Manhattan Island.  She and her husband, Roelof Jansen, were originally granted the land in 1636.  After the English government came into power she and her heirs continued to own the land through a grant from the Governorof New York, Col. Francis Lovelace.  Unfortunately, due to a technicality (missing signatures on the deed) the family lost the land after 1671.

New York City and Trinity Church purchased parts of the land at that time but it was not the end of the story.  For over 150 years, in 16 lawsuits, the heirs of Anneke Jans sued the city for their land.  Then in 1847 the final decision was made that the land was purchased legally.

The last remaining remnant of the Jans farm is now a small park that if you didn’t know was there you would miss.  On my last day in NYC I was determined to find it.  Heck it was only a mile walk from my hotel!  What’s a mile when you are on a mission?

Plaque at Duane Park

My route took me past Trinity Church, which, of course, I had to stop at.  Sunday services were occurring so I didn’t go inside but I spent a good 20 minutes looking around the graveyard.  There  were quite a few beautiful tombstones that I stopped to admire.  I also discovered the Soldier’s Monument, which was quite moving and a piece of history I did not know about.

I continued up Broadway from there eventually crossing over to West Broadway until I came to the little diagonal street I was looking for, Hudson.  The small triangle piece of land that lies on Duane and Hudson Streets lies in the middle of one of the Tribecca neighborhoods.  Row houses with red bricks and brown stones lined the streets.  The local market was putting out fresh flowers and arranging pumpkins on the front steps.  Families were out for a stroll and joggers ran by with their headphones in oblivious to the wonder I was experiencing.

Duane Park

Standing there reading the plaques at Duane Park I got that familiar sensation again. You know the one you get when you develop a connection to something that had an impact on your past.  My family once walked here.  They farmed here.  They lived and they died here.  I just sat and took in the late blooming flowers for a minute trying to feel them.

I started back south and crossed over at Church Street.   This route took me past the new World Trade Center.  Stopping on a corner I looked up and appreciated the beauty of the new tower, but unlike the mass of tourists heading to the memorial I had no desire to go.  I am not ready yet, and if you don’t know why, go back and read this post.  Thankfully, I know I am not alone.

Across the street from all of the construction was St. Paul’s Chapel.  Of course it was another attempt to feed my growing addiction to cemetery research so I stopped in.  I did not go in the building and look at the exhibits on 9/11 and the church, but I once again spent a good 20-30 minutes meandering on the path around the church craning my neck to see the markers from the flagstones.  However, my searching was not in vein.  I did find heraldry marking one of the graves and I am now researching who this person was.

The Immigrants, Battery Park

From there I did the “touristy thing” and wandered around the area of my hotel.  Took a nice stroll through Battery Park, discovered the NY Stock Exchange was 2 blocks from my hotel, saw the steps where George Washington was inaugurated out first president, and watched silly foreign tourists try to feed the squirrels acorns.  Yeah, can’t make up that last one.

By the time I was done I walked 7 ½ miles in downtown.  No wonder I was so tired on the 5 hour train ride home.  However, sleeping is nearly impossible on a train I’ve decided.  It’s not like an airplane where the constant hum of the engines lulls you to sleep.  Instead I finished my new book (The Juggler’s Children) and did some work.  Ah, the life of a train commuter. 

Digging up Roots in New Netherlands

Joan Vinckeboons (Johannes Vingboon),
"Manatvs gelegen op de Noot [sic] Riuier", 1639.

Over the past month I have been reading the book about my family from this post.  It is a compiled genealogy (with footnotes and sources!) from a married couple by the names of William Kenneth Rutherford and Anna Clay (Zimmerman) Rutherford.  Our common line is my most frustrating line currently: the Hayden Family.

I knew that my line descended from John Alden and Pricilla Mullins through marriage into the Hayden family.  I also knew that our common ancestor William Hayden married a woman who had Dutch ancestry.  Besides that I didn’t know much else about their lines.  Very quickly I have learned that I need to do a lot more research.  I mean lots, particularly in the early founding of this area of the country.

Lydia Kierstede married William Hayden about 1748.  Originally from Staten Island, New York her family has deep roots into the New Netherlands colony.  I don’t know much about this time in colonial history, besides the fact that the British took control of the colony during the Anglo-Dutch Wars.  This is now a subject that I am eagerly learning more about.

Various lines of Lydia’s family appear to have been involved in many functions of the colony from the start.  Several lived in Fort Orange, New Amsterdam, and as well as on what is now Staten Island and Long Island.  There were farmers, doctors, an interpreter and a midwife.  While most were simple colonists quite a few were skilled workers employed by the Dutch West India Company.

I never thought I would find roots to this part of Europe.  The lines of German ancestry were not surprising, I have several recent immigrant lines, but it was interesting to see town names in Norway, the Netherlands, and Denmark. This is a whole new area of history, geography, politics, and social history I need to study.  Lots of trips to the library and hours on the computer I guess.

Anneke Jans

Several of the biographical sketches from the book also made me think that I have had a colorful and amazing family from the earliest of times.  I need to do further research, of course I want to see these documents myself is possible, but it is fantastic that I have a bit of a road map to read and use for clues to my past.  Plus, telling my kids about the adventures, trials, success, and failures their ancestors had makes their family real.  I just love hearing my kids ask me if they had relatives who participated in major historical events. 

One ancestor that has grabbed my attention, and the attention of many of her descendants, is Anneke Jans.  I am descended, it appears, through her daughter Sara from her first marriage to Roelof Jansen.  There are many legends, folk tales, and stories that have been built up around her including the exploits of her great grandson to take back land on Manhattan that once belonged to her. 

I plan on writing more over the next few months about these relatives.  This is going to be so much fun!

The Bennett and Jahnke Familes of NYC

Presumed to be the children and
grandchildren of George and Augusta Bennett
George and Augusta are seated in the front row

For the past 6 months I have searched to bust down the brick wall on my husband’s paternal family line.  I have had little luck and it can be very aggravating because the two family names are not that uncommon in turn of the 20^th Century New York City.  I have to know the story of George Bennett and Augusta Jahnke, even if it takes me years to put the puzzle pieces together.

James and Isabella “Bella” Bennett appear together on the 1880 US Federal Census with their children at 1529 1^st Ave New York, New York.  The Next time I was able to find this family was in 1920 with Isabella living with her son George Bennett and his family in Hartford, Connecticut. 

Emil Jahnke, widower, appears with his Daughter, Augusta Jahnke Bennett, and her family in the 1910 Census at 408 east 108^th Street New York, New York.  By back tracking a little I find him living with Mary Jahnke, age 13, in 1900 2 blocks away From George and Augusta in the Bronx.

Then a hint fell into my lap.  A fantastic breakthrough!   On Family Search I found an index listing for George and Augusta’s marriage, in Manhattan, during August 1894.  On it  had the most amazing bits of information.  The grooms parents were listed as Jas. Bennett and Isabella Ruddy and the bride’s parents were listed as Emil Jahnke and Mary Meyer.  BINGO!  I know, not a lot to go on, but hey I will take what I can get.

Even better, when I put Emil Jahnke and Mary Meyer into Family Search I came up with a listing for a possible marriage certificate for them.  My only problem, it is 10 years after his eldest daughter was born, in 1884.  So, who do Augusta and Mary belong too, really?  Or, is this even the correct family?  The pieces all fit just the dates are all screwy.  Am I at square one again or this a trail that could lead me to the right people?

On the Emil and Mary indexed marriage record it listed his full name as Emil Herman George Jahnke and hers as Maria Meyer Heinritz.  His parents were listed as Ferdinand Jahnke and Louise Engelman.  I had several hits on this family showing that he had a brother named George.  It appears that they immigrated to the US in the 1870’s.  Odd part, both boys are listed as living with their parents on every US and NY state census I can find; even when they are in their 30’s.  This was getting stranger and stranger by the minute. 

I have a father that immigrates with his parents after his daughter was born, marries her mother 10 years later, lives with his parents for decades while appearing to live on his own or with his children, and then disappears after 1910.  Owie, my brain is starting to hurt.  I have ordered the marriage certificates from New York, maybe seeing the real thing will help.

Daniel Chamberlin and Juliette Hubbell

This family group is a mystery to my mother-in-law that has been an ongoing puzzle to work out.  While I think I have figured out most of it…there are still numerous unknown pieces.  Their son William Holmes Chamberlin Mills is my mother in laws paternal grandfather.  He was adopted by the Mills family in Clarendon NY because is parents died of illness (typhoid?).

Below is the transcription of their marriage certificate (I have a photocopy of the original that my mother in law mailed to me):

This certifies, that I have this day, in accordance with the laws of this state united in marriage Daniel B Chamberlin of New York City, and Juliette Hubbell of Rochester, New York.

 Witness my hand

and seal at Lockport
New York, Apr 4, 1857
Joel Kennedy

Witnesses

Jane E Risner
DB Chamberlin
Juliette Chamberlin

I found the whole family on the 1870 Census from Rochester New York: Daniel (50), Juliette (written as Suliette) (39), Ella (12), Frank (8), and Holmes (4).  It gave me a birth date of 1820 for Daniel. This means that they died sometime between the Census of 1870.

The NY State census for Orleans County in 1875 William Holmes Chamberlin listed with his adoptive parents, the Mills:  William Chamberlin (10) living with Marvin (47) and Anna (42) Mills who is listed as a framer. It lists him as adopted.

My big question is who was Ella and what happened to her?  My mother in laws father said Frank lived in San Antonio, but I have not been able to locate him.

This site has the lineage of Daniel B Chamberlin, father to William Holmes Chamberlin Mills.  Between my verification and a cousin on my mother in law’s side providing verification I am pretty confident in the findings and source material cited.

You need to search to Daniel B Chamberlin.  Then click to the right of the bio for a PDF of each person.  Some are brief, some are extensive.  Of course I have not finished doing all of the verification for my self yet.